April 8, 2019 | Filed under: Art, Music & Pop Culture, Reviews
If you are the sort of person who is delighted by the mere existence of a book about historical programming on the CBC, then you will likely find much to recommend in Monica MacDonald’s Recasting ... Read More »
The image that comes to mind when thinking of early 20th century Canadian painting, particularly from Toronto, is likely the landscaped vistas created en plein air by Tom Thomson and the Group of Seven. But ... Read More »
October 18, 2018 | Filed under: Art, Music & Pop Culture, Memoir & Biography
It’s the most enduring mystery in Canadian art: how did famed landscape painter Tom Thomson die? The past century has seen a flood of books, articles, and documentaries speculating – without reaching a definitive determination ... Read More »
September 10, 2018 | Filed under: Art, Music & Pop Culture
Among the great Greek tragedies, perhaps no other has spawned as many successful adaptations and critical reflections as Sophocles’s Antigone. Novelist Will Aitken reminds readers why Antigone remains such a universally accessible play in this ... Read More »
January 18, 2018 | Filed under: Art, Music & Pop Culture, Memoir & Biography
The vicissitudes of time and gentrification notwithstanding, it can be difficult to comprehend Toronto through its writers. The bust of poet Gwendolyn MacEwen, who dropped out of school in 1959 at age 18 to teach ... Read More »
June 22, 2017 | Filed under: Art, Music & Pop Culture, History
At one point in The Revenge of Analog: Real Things and Why They Matter, David Sax tells the story of a marketing rep’s attempt to steer him away from writing another conventional book. She suggests ... Read More »
August 22, 2016 | Filed under: Art, Music & Pop Culture
Biographies of musicians are often indistinguishable from extended fan letters, so it’s always nice when authors are upfront about their enthusiasms. In the introduction to his new essay collection, Lives of the Poets (with Guitars), ... Read More »
January 26, 2016 | Filed under: Art, Music & Pop Culture
In his new memoir, Robert Bateman, the octogenarian painter, naturalist, and conservationist – who has received immense commercial success during his long artistic career – reflects on the entirety of his life’s work. Born in ... Read More »
December 10, 2015 | Filed under: Art, Music & Pop Culture
There is a spectre haunting retired University of Toronto English professor Sam Solecki’s new book about François Truffaut – the spectre of Jean-Luc Godard. Solecki is not the first critic to contrast the twin figureheads ... Read More »
September 9, 2015 | Filed under: Art, Music & Pop Culture
Andrew Hood’s new monograph on Jim Guthrie opens with a telling request from its star: “Is there any way that you can write me in as a supporting character in my own biography?” Besides pointing ... Read More »
May 21, 2015 | Filed under: Art, Music & Pop Culture, Memoir & Biography